Clozapine for the treatment of adolescents with schizophrenia

Despite recent reports that clozapine is useful for the treatment of chronic schizophrenics resistant to neuroleptics, no studies have been reported in adolescents with schizophrenia. Despite the risk of potentially fatal agranulocytosis, clozapine's use in adolescents may become important because of its lack of extrapyramidal side effects or association with tardive dyskinesia, and reports that suggest that schizophrenic adolescents resemble chronic adult schizophrenics. The authors report three successful trials of clozapine in adolescents with schizophrenia who did not respond to conventional neuroleptic treatment.